


(right in there.)

by softly (alexenglish)



Series: hungry like the (well you know.) [3]
Category: One Direction (Band), Zayn Malik (Musician)
Genre: Alternate Canon, Alternate Universe - Magic, Asexual Character, M/M, Mating Bond, Relationship Negotiation, Werewolf Niall, implied Niall Horan/Zayn Malik/Harry Styles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-10
Updated: 2017-08-10
Packaged: 2018-12-13 17:24:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11764755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alexenglish/pseuds/softly
Summary: When you touch me, my mind is gone.  The only words I know are lost inside your body.





	(right in there.)

**Author's Note:**

> [a softer world project](http://queerlyalex.tumblr.com/asofterworld)

 

“When are you planning on biting me?” Zayn asks.

And immediately regrets it as soon as Louis’ head snaps towards him. Niall’s follows at a slower pace, eyes still on the television for a moment before he pauses COD and looks at Zayn.

“What’s that, petal?” Niall asks, blinking at him. Zayn doesn’t know if he actually didn’t hear or if he’s pushing it, but it’s annoying either way. 

“You were still planning on biting me, weren’t you?” Zayn asks quietly, ignoring the way his face flares with heat. A blush starts on Niall’s cheeks too, wide eyes darting to Louis and then back. 

“I’m going to --” Louis pops up and grabs his phone, kicking the controller of the way as he heads towards the back. “I’ll be in my bunk. With headphones in. Listening to music very loudly.”

“They warn against that,” Niall says, not taking his eyes off Zayn. “Gotta be careful with them human ears, Tommo.”

“Thanks Niall, had no idea,” Louis says sarcastically, and then he’s off, socked feet quick on the carpet. The partition rolls shut louder than necessary. Then it’s quiet. 

Zayn watches Niall go through the motions of picking up the Xbox controllers and turning off the tv silently. The thoughts that were just clammering around in his head, the ones that drove him to even ask the question in the first place, are miraculously quiet. 

When Niall settles down on the couch, he leaves a respectable a respectable amount of space between them, mirroring Zayn so that his feet are curled under him. His body language is stiff, unsure. There’s an awkward tension between them that Zayn doesn’t know what to do with. They’re never really awkward. 

Maybe that’s how Zayn knows he asked the right question. 

For someone who literally has the resting heart rate of a cat, Zayn’s pulse feels uncomfortably sluggish. Heavy even, feeling each beat behind his ribcage as he waits for Niall to say something. 

“So we should talk about this,” Niall says, after another long moment of them staring at each other. 

Zayn exhales heavily through his nose. “You don’t have to, like.” Zayn shrugs, looking down at his jeans. He rubs his finger over the frayed hole at his knee, trying to organize his thoughts. “It’s cool. If you changed your mind.”

“I haven’t,” Niall says quickly. There’s something in is tone that makes Zayn hesitant to believe him. It must make his heart or scent change, because Niall frowns at him sharply, before repeating himself. “I _haven’t_.”

“It’s been weeks,” Zayn mumbles. “Literally like, weeks.” 

Weeks since Niall bit Harry and Harry’s elation, while infectious, is the type that makes Zayn miserable with envy if he thinks about it too hard for too long. 

Zayn gets it, he does. He knows it’s Harry’s first real go at romantic relationships. They said they avoided it for so long on purpose. That being a lilin makes them question everyone’s intentions. That it’s just easier to not let themself be vulnerable. 

Until the five of them got put together and Harry didn’t have any other choice than to _be_ vulnerable. None of them really did, if they wanted it to work. And for Harry that meant letting themself fall in love. Once, twice, four times. Whatever it was for them. 

But Niall’s always been different. Since he’s a wolf and can feed Harry, and _wants_ to feed Harry. Actually, wants to -- And since the bite, Harry’s been so overly affectionate with Niall. It’s a honeymoon phase that Zayn’s completely missing out on with his own partners.

“I know,” Niall says, mouth twisting. Tiredness clings to his eyes, energy low from the new moon. There’s something else there too, something wary. He’s got his nails in his mouth, gnawing away. 

Zayn isn’t brave enough to ask if he did anything wrong, so he stays silent, groping around for something else to say that might nudge the conversation in the right direction. He comes up empty handed and frustrated.

“I didn’t ask, y’know?” Zayn says, resting his cheek on his knee to look at Niall. “I wasn’t going to. You didn’t -- If you weren’t ready, you didn’t have to say anything.”

The look on Niall’s face is so sincerely offended it’s almost comical. He lurches to his knees, bringing him closer to Zayn. “No, I --” he reaches out and touches Zayn’s arm, feather-light and questioning. “I’m ready. I swear I am, Z.” His fingers press harder, more insistent. 

Zayn unfolds for Niall, because he doesn’t want to be the person who shuts their boyfriend out when all they’re doing is talking. Even if he has no idea what the end of the conversation is going to look like. So he untucks his knees slowly, shifts so that he’s facing Niall. 

Niall’s shoulders go soft as he sits back on his heels. His eyes are wide and blue and unsure as he stares at Zayn.

“Then why haven’t you?” Zayn asks. It feels like it’s too loud, too insistent for how tentative everything has been, but he really wants to know. 

“I don’t know how.” Niall winces, digging his front teeth into his bottom lip, so hard Zayn sees a flash of fangs as his lips tense. “I mean, I do _know_ how. But I don’t know.... You know?”

“I don’t,” Zayn says flatly. It’s getting hard to keep his temper squared away. He’s been in a shit mood for a few days over this. Insecure and confused and a little jealous. It’s difficult to let Niall tiptoe through an explanation. 

Niall nods at him slowly before exhaling. “I talked to the pack,” he says. Then all in a rush, “I’m sorry, I know it might be too personal, but I needed some help with it, is all.”

Zayn chooses to ignore the fact that the LIC knows Niall’s having domestic concerns now. That’s uncomfortable. “Why did you need help, Niall?” 

Is it really that difficult, biting a partner?

“Uhm,” Niall says, and Zayn frowns sharply. “Mating bites are… It’s hard to explain, like that’s why I called them because I needed to figure it out, and it’s just --”

“Niall, please,” Zayn interrupts, feeling a bit helpless with the way Niall’s cheeks have gone pink and his words are meandering in a way that means he’s stalling.

“Mating bites are sexual?” Niall says quietly.

Zayn feels small, all of a sudden. Embarrassment flares through him. He can feel it deep in his gut, and on his face, his chest, down his arms. He doesn’t want to finish this conversation. He wants to turn into a cat and hide under a bunk.

“Oh,” is all he manages. 

“I mean,” Niall says, tipping forward, hand on Zayn’s arm again. Less of a question, steady. “It usually is. ‘Mating’, you know. In the most literal sense.”

“Yeah,” Zayn says, voice sticky. He’s trying his hardest to sound unaffected. He doesn’t think it’s convincing. 

“So I talked to the pack, right, just to see,” Niall says. “Like if anyone had done it outside of -- of knotting.” 

“I’m guessing the answer was no.” Because of course not. Because Zayn’s managed to get in a relationship with the two people for whom _sex_ is dead important in a relationship, and Zayn… _Mating_ , right. 

“Well, yeah,” Niall says, huffing. It might be a laugh, but he’s probably restraining himself for Zayn’s benefit. “But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.”

It’s not impossible.

“I know,” Zayn says. He grabs Niall’s hand so he can lace their fingers together, heart tripping up in his chest so hard Niall can probably hear it thrumming. “We could definitely do that. If that’s what you want.”

Niall makes another offended face. It takes everything in Zayn not to drop his hand and just. Stop touching him. 

It’s _not_ impossible. It’s actually _very_ possible. Zayn’s fed Harry before. He’s thought about having sex with Niall plenty. It would make Niall feel good, and he wants to make Niall feel good, that’s at the top of his To Do list, right next to _make Harry feel good_. 

He reckons it’d be like listening to Niall talk about golf. It’s not necessarily a conversation he’s passionate about, or even wants to have. Golf is boring, but he’ll listen since Niall loves it, since _he_ loves the way Niall lights up when he talks about it. 

Orgasms would be the same. Similar, at least.

The fact that Niall’s so hesitant about it is kind of making Zayn feel like shit.

“I don’t want --” Niall shakes his head. Zayn looks at the hole in his jeans again. “If we were going to, I don’t want it to be because you think you _have_ to.”

“I mean, if that’s how we --”

“No, it’s not,” Niall says hurriedly. “There nothing about sex that completes the mating. It’s just the bite. It usually happens when people are shagging, but it’s not required.”

“Okay,” Zayn says, pulling his hand away. His palm is sweaty. Niall reaches out and catches it with both his hands, not letting him go. 

“If we do,” Niall says, eyes wide and sincere. “If we ever did… I want it to be like, because you want to. ‘Cause that’s what feels right, or whatever. Not ‘cause it’s an assumed part of an asinine werewolf ritual.”

Zayn’s embarrassed again, staring at their hands. He was ready to be upset with Niall over _not_ wanting to have sex with him, when all Niall wants is to have sex with him on their own terms. And it’s only _if Zayn wants to_ , and not _when_ like it’s inevitable that Zayn will give in and -- and Zayn’s… going to have to think about that later, so he doesn't derail his own important relationship conversation.

“It’s not asinine,” is all Zayn says.

“It is a bit.” Niall shrugs. Zayn’s pretty sure he’s lying, considering the very idea of _mates_ and what they mean to wolves, but Zayn doesn’t say anything about that. “Didn’t even really feel anything with Haz.”

“It was the full,” Zayn says flatly. “They were all --” he waves his hand around and magic cascades between them, sparking and green, and Niall smiles -- “horny, and you were all --”

“Horny,” Niall supplies, with a snort.

“I just mean it could have been the magic.”

“Yeah, could’ve,” Niall says, inching closer. He drops Zayn’s hand and puts his own on each of Zayn’s thighs. “Maybe it feels different with different people.”

“Don’t think most would know,” Zayn says, enjoying the fond way Niall’s looking at him. It makes him feel steadier. “Most only have one mate, I think.”

“Pity,” Niall says, leaning forward so he can nudge his nose against Zayn’s cheek. Zayn obliges and tilts his head so their mouths can catch. A soft sigh of a kiss. “The more the merrier.”

Zayn hums in agreement, belly warm as Niall trails his hands up Zayn’s thighs, fingertips sliding up under the hem of his shirt so Niall’s touching skin. 

It always feels lovely -- to touch and be touched. It’s comfortable and warm, and it’s so nice knowing that they can touch and touch and touch, and Niall is never going to expect anything from Zayn at the end of it. Knowing he can pull away without hearing a huff of disappointment, or getting an expectant look like someone else’s orgasms are somehow his responsibility. 

Niall always touches everywhere he can, can’t keep his hands still. Down Zayn’s sides and over his hips and up his thighs and gripping his arms. Exploring every nook and cranny like they don’t snog on a regular basis. Zayn’s sure Niall has him mapped out, but Niall keeps touching Zayn like he’s something new to be admired, and --

Niall slides Zayn shirt up carefully over his head. Zayn flings it somewhere, shivers when Niall’s hands drag down his chest, warm palm cupping Zayn’s ribs gently before he tiptoes his fingers around and down Zayn’s spine, strumming across his skin like guitar strings.

The air around them is hot and solid, humming with Zayn’s magic -- overly excited from how good Zayn feels. Zayn ducks his head in embarrassment, but Niall laughs and catches his hand, pressing a kiss to Zayn’s palm. Presses a kiss to the inside of Zayn’s wrist, up his arm, to the soft fold of his elbow.

“Can I, then?” he asks, tapping Zayn’s chest, a bit above his heart. Zayn’s stomach flutters, tongue thick as he nods. Niall cups his jaw carefully and kisses him one more time, before pulling away and ducking down. 

“Ready?” he asks, looking up at Zayn from under his lashes, eyes flashing bright gold. 

“Yeah,” Zayn says, cradling the back of Niall’s head softly, fingers threading through the soft hairs on his nape. He’s hyperaware of the places they’re touching -- Niall nearly in his lap from kissing, hand planted on Zayn’s shoulder to steady himself, the other on his chest to frame where the bite will go. Zayn presses the palm of his free hand to Niall’s chest for a moment to feel the heavy, slow rhythm of his heart, thinking this is definitely the most intimate they’ve ever been. 

Niall looks at him once more before ducking down and -- Zayn’s chest burns as Niall bites him, corner of his mind flaring hotly as his whole body thrums with magic -- there, surging like a gasp of breath, and gone --

Zayn grunts as Niall pulls back to lap sweetly at the the blood trickling from the bite. He nuzzles into Zayn’s neck softly, sighing contentedly. 

“I don’t feel any different,” Zayn says, but he realizes it’s not true once he says it. There’s a new magic settling between them, a bond. He feels it stretch past Niall as well, out and away to… Harry on Bus 2, he’s assuming. “Oh.”

“Feels nice,” Niall hums, pulling back to grin down at Zayn, smear of blood on his left fang, and Zayn laughs out loud, pulling him down for a kiss. 

To seal the deal, or whatever.

**Author's Note:**

> [reblog on tumblr](http://queerlyalex.tumblr.com/post/164027668552/right-in-there-zaynniall-23k)


End file.
